Waga sono no sumomo no hana ka niwa ni chiru hadare no imada nokoritaru kamo

吾が園の李の花か庭に散る
はだれのいまだ残りたるかも

Roma-ji: Waga sono no sumomo no hana ka niwa ni chiru hadare no imada nokoritaru kamo
English Translation: In my own garden
are those plum blossoms that fall
scattered on the ground,
or is it patchy snowfall
that even now lingers on?
Meaning: Is it the blossoms of the plum tree in my garden scattering across the ground, or patches of snow that still remain unmelted?
Commentary: Book Nineteen 4140

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems composed on the evening of the first day of the third month, Tenpyō Shōhō 2, gazing at the peach and plum blossoms in the spring garden"
Seeing something white scattered across the garden, the poet wonders aloud whether it is fallen plum petals or patches of snow not yet melted. The device of seeing falling blossoms as snow also carries a real sense of the late spring of Etchū in the snowy north.
Answering the crimson peach of the preceding poem with white plum blossoms, the two poems form a pair in red and white. The idea of being unable to tell blossoms from snow recalls a poem by Yakamochi's father, Ōtomo no Tabito, at the plum-blossom banquet in Dazaifu: "In my garden plum blossoms scatter—could it be snow flowing down from the far heavens?" (Book Five, 822); the opening words "in my garden" echo that poem as well.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Grand Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. From 746 he served as Governor of Etchū, living at the provincial headquarters in what is now Fushiki, Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. He is regarded as the leading poet of the Nara period and is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line, "waga sono no" (in my garden), takes up "the spring garden" of the preceding poem and restates the same garden as the poet's own.
Second line, "sumomo no hana ka" (are they plum blossoms?): the particle "ka" poses the question of whether what lies scattered is plum petals.
Third line, "niwa ni chiru" (scattering in the garden), concludes the question begun by "ka" in the attributive form, completing the first conjecture.
Fourth line, "hadare no imada" (patchy snow, still): "hadare" means thin snow lying in patches. Here the white of the blossoms is overlaid with snow.
Fifth line, "nokoritaru kamo" (has it remained?): "kamo" combines doubt and wonder, leaving the two possibilities side by side and closing on astonishment at the whiteness before the poet's eyes.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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